Choo Choo BBQ sets course for new home

The Choo Choo BBQ "caboose" that pulled out of Old Town in late May is on track to reopen in a new location on Burnt Church Road.

But the bright-red shell of the caboose - an RV-style, full service kitchen - might need to be toned down from bright red to an oxblood to meet guidelines the Village Commercial zoning district, according to co-owners Pat and Sandy Blankenship.

They said they hope to find out and get approval to open at the new location at the Bluffton Planning Commission's meeting at 6 p.m. Aug. 25 at Town Hall, 20 Bridge St.

Pat Blankenship is recovering from health problems which, together with tough times for small businesses, contributed to the Memorial Day weekend closing of Choo Choo BBQ. "Now (the caboose) is at my house in Levy. It's waiting to come back," he said.

He is on leave from the Hardeeville Police Department, which he joined as a patrol officer last September, coming out of his law enforcement retirement from the Bluffton Police Department and, before that, as a Beaufort County sheriff's deputy.

The new lease site is the home of a former coffee shop at 129 Burnt Church Road, on the east side of the road between the T-square Group and a big, yellow house. The coffee shop was opened in a converted single-family house after the town annexed the property and gave it mixed-use, village commercial zoning.

Tuesday morning, the Blankenships appeared before the town's Development Review Committee for a review of plans for locating Choo Choo BBQ on the site, which is about a 10th of a mile south of the Fern Lakes subdivision entrance.

The development review panel - with members from the town Growth Management and Police departments, the Planning Commission and the Bluffton Fire District - asked for a few more details about the project.

"The Choo Choo BBQ project is going before Planning Commission because the application process for both Village Commercial District Certificate of Appropriateness and Highway Corridor Overlay District Certificate of Appropriateness require Planning Commission review and approval," said Katie Woodruff, town neighborhood preservation planner.

"The Planning Commission has purview over design elements including lighting, landscape, parking, materials, and color for properties located within the overlay district," she added. No Town Council approvals are needed.

The property was annexed into the town as part of the Lee annexation, which was approved by Town Council on April 15, 2008.

The Blankenships said they'd like to have all approvals in time to open by Labor Day, which is on Sept. 6, and resume sales of pork and chicken cooked over oak wood and pulled.

Initial proposed business hours at the new location are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

They would have limited indoor seating and picnic tables for outdoor dining, but operate primarily as a carryout business.

"Right now we're just focusing on barbecue," Pat Blankenship told the committee. But they probably would eventually seek a license to serve beer and wine, "because a lot of folks like to have beer with their barbecue."

Under a chain of various owners, the "red caboose" was a fixture at 1271 May River Road (S.C. 46), next to the Chevron convenience store since 2003.

Calvin Crosby, former owner of Calvin Crosby, built the replica caboose and had used it at various locations before it was reopened as Oscar's BBQ, according to Pat Blankenship.

The late Oscar J. Frazier, then Bluffton's mayor pro tem, started Oscar's BBQ there with former caboose owner Jimmy McIntire in December 2004. Frazier ran the barbecue until he died in August 2005. McIntire then leased the caboose for Ted Huffman's Bluffton BBQ, which opened there in October 2005 and is now in The Promenade. McIntire sold the caboose to Paul Riganas, owner of the nearby Squat 'n' Gobble restaurant, in early 2008.

Riganas reopened the barbecue in June 2008 as ChooChooBBQ after creating a small stir by putting a decorative addition on the top of the structure without prior town approval. A town planner said the add-on looked like "a giant dollhouse," the Historic Preservation Commission ruled it did not meet historic district "appropriateness" standards, and Riganas removed it and paid a fine.

The Blankenships reopened the business Jan. 2, 2009, after buying it from Riganis. The land is owned and was leased to the Blankenships by Chevron-building owner Perry Patel, who bought it and the Chevron property in January 2008 from McIntire.

Before moving out, the Blankenships had expanded Choo Choo BBQ to include indoor dining in a business space next door to the Chevron convenience store. They got a beer and wine license, too, and a few musicians liked to drop by and pick bluegrass tunes inside, they said.

For the Burnt Church Road site, the Blankenships said they've lined up the needed DHEC approvals. They include agreement to upgrade the existing septic system with a 1,000 gallon grease trap. They also would limit dish washing to kitchen equipment and utensils, since all meals would be served as take-outs.

Food would be prepared in the smoker and the caboose kitchen and served from the former coffee shop. "The RV-style full service kitchen is designed to be brought on site, blocked and anchored in place in the same manner as a mobile home. It is equipped with DHEC and fire-safety approved equipment and once anchored on site, needs only suitable electrical and plumbing connections," the Blankenship's project narrative says.

They considered relocating in Hardeeville, but the red caboose became a part of Bluffton and the Blankenships said they get a lot of requests to bring it back.

Other tough times with the startup included 21 straight days of rain in April 2009 and the town Streetscape project that stretched through the summer to around Thanksgiving 2009 and cut business almost in half. "We're hoping all the bad's behind us and all the good's in front of us," Pat Blankenship said.

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I don't see how they can get DHEC approval to put it there. There is no sewer on that property and you need sewer for a commercial kitchen. The caboose trailer was grandfathered in where it was. I'll be curious to see what happens.

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